Trip to Annapolis

Trip to Annapolis

Monday,

well I left home Monday afternoon later then I had planned on because I had to take care of a plumbing problem before I could get away. I then spent an extra hour on the I-495 beltway around DC. It took me 3.5 hrs to get to Annapolis. So by the time I got there it was definetely beer 30. I hate big city stop and go traffic.

I met a bunch of my co-workers at the dockside bar of the Annapolis Marriott about 7pm where we proceeded to put a dent in the local beverage supply. My new friend Jackie, from the Cincy trip, met me/us there. She lives about 5 miles from Annapolis. She had her share of the local supply as well.

After we were throughly refreshed, relaxed and enjoying ourselves 18 of decided to go to a close-by restraunt/bar called Middleton's. (M'tons) Downtown Annapolis is a touristy place with a LOT of bars and restaurants in close proximity. When we left the dockside bar and headed for dinner it had just started to rain/spinkle. We got to M'tons and in the door when it really let loose. It took them a few minutes to get all of us seated, which was expected since we just dropped in. Good thing it was a Monday and a light crowd.

Our project leader had acquired funding from somewhere to buy appetizers for the crowd. Now Annapolis is a seafood town and as most of you know seafood isn't cheap. The appetizers ran about 7 bucks each and he ordered like 12 different ones. I personally had some of the crab dip on crackers, it was some crabmeat blended into a spicy cheese sauce. Pretty good stuff.

Next there was fried calamari and fried baby octopus with a marinara sauce. Very tasty, especially the octopus. Then there were small crab balls, like crab cakes. Again, very tasty. And lastly I had steamed mussels in a white wine & garlic sauce with drawn butter and a seasoned powder similar to Old Bay, but saltier.

They also offered oyster shooters, now I had never heard of or had these before but since I like oysters, even raw, I decided to try one. They brought the raw oyster in a small plastic cup, about a 2oz size, with another cup the same size of beer. The oyster was swimming in a bit of cocktail sauce. Someone at the table told me that there was vodka too, which turned out to be incorrect.

Boy did I like these. I must of had 5 or 6, lost count. Jackie matched me 1 for 1, good girl that Jackie. :)

For my dinner entree I ordered 2 different appetizers. The first one was a combo platter of Oysters Rockefeller, fried oysters, shrimp scampi, scallops scampi style and another oyster dish, don't know what it was called. These were good but unfortunately over-cooked. I brushed this aside, this time, under the circumstances. 18 people at once is a hard trick to do. The other plate was 6 nice sized deep sea scallops wrapped in bacon, sauted and spiced with a Thai style sauce. These were execellent!

For dessert I had my first shot at creme' brule. It was OK, but by then I was stuffed to the gills. :) Pun intended :) :)

Everyone of us had a great time and if I get back to Annapolis I would go here again.

After dinner we walked through the downpour :( back to the hotel and back to the bar for a nightcap. Amaretto for me.

Mike-- your post makes me hungry (and thirsty) for a visit next door to Middleton--I always enjoy the back bar at Mcgarvey's in Annapolis. Bowls of mussels and their own Aviator beer. I can't remember which night is "locals night" when Aviator's are cheap, but it's worth checking out. Hope you continue to enjoy one of my favorite places to visit.

Mike-- your post makes me hungry (and thirsty) for a visit next door to Middleton--I always enjoy the back bar at Mcgarvey's in Annapolis. Bowls of mussels and their own Aviator beer. I can't remember which night is "locals night" when Aviator's are cheap, but it's worth checking out. Hope you continue to enjoy one of my favorite places to visit.

Barney, we had so many choices to choose from there, it was great. I was only there 2 nights instead of 4 like my co-workers. I had to be home Wednesday night because my youngest, 22, had surgery Thursday. All went well with that thankfully.

Got up w/o a hang-over Tuesday morning which was kinda suprising since I hadn't drank so much in a LONG time. Boy us computer geeks can still put it away! Must have been all the food I ate that night that helped

For breakfast several of us went to Einstein's Bagels just up the block from the Marriott. I haven't had such a tasty bagel in years. I ordered an everything bagel, heavy on the cream cheese and boy was it delicious. It was soft to the touch but still a bit chewy, it had a nice bite to it. I liked all the different seeds on top. Very nummy.

For lunch I went back to the real Mexican taco place I found in June. It is named, Taqueria Tres Reyes #2. It is at 5403 Kenilworth Ave. I don't know which city this is, they all sorta run together here. It is in Prince George's County Md. though.

I had 3 tacos, 2 with pork meat, Al Pastor they call it and 1 with beef tounge, Lengua to the spanish. Each taco comes with 2 corn tortillias slightly overlapping each other, the meat you choose, slices of lemon, thinly sliced radish and chopped onion. Plus the plate had an onion stalk. I discarded the radish slices, never did develop a taste for them and the onion stalk. They also bring out 4 containers of different salsas. I had learened from my visit in June to stay away from the real chunky one. It is mostly sliced/chopped habanero peppers. Killer pepper that one. I used the the thin guacomole one. I prefer a chunky guacomole but this is good.

The pork was chopped well and refried to lightly crispy texture on the grill. I think, think mind you, don't know but it was probably boiled first to make it very tender and fall of the bone. Then chopped and fried to heat it up and put a little crisp to it. Very tasty, however they do it. The tounge is small cubes and a bit chewy, just like it is supposed to be.

I fell in love with this food back in Fresno when I worked the family farmland and worked with the Mexican field hands. Reminds me of home, we had several taco stands near downtown Fresno that offered this type of authentic mexican food.

After work drove back to Annapolis, caught a bit of a nap and then went and explored some of Main street in Annapolis. Lot's of food places and touristy stuff.

Went back to Middleton's about 5:45 to meet up with Jackie and a couple others. I got there earlier then our agreed upon 6PM so I sat outside and ordered an iced tea. Sat there drinking it and BS'ing with the wait staff and enjoyed watching all the people walking about. I'm definetely a people watcher.

2 of the crowd showed up right about 6 and Jackie about 10 after. We had agreed to meet for oyster shooters and to then decide where we wanted to go for dinner. I ordered 4 oyster and 2 shrimp shooter and everyone else had various versions of this. I still prefer the oyster to the shrimp. They were just great. Raw oyster, some spicy cocktail sauce and I add a few drops of tobasco. Yum!!!

We wound up going to Buddy's Crabs & Ribs on Main st for dinner. I had the M-F AYCE seafood bar which was 16.95 and had a decent selection. It has steamed crab legs, 2 kinds of fried fish, a seafood Newburgh with several different types of shell and gill fish. A seafood gumbo, wild rice, roasted chicken, crab imperial stuffed chicken breast, a multitude of salads stuff, fresh fruit, raw oysters, several desserts and the toughest steamed clams I ever tried to eat.

Everything was really good except the clams. Tough, very tough.

Jackie had their 5.95 half lb burger and pint of domestic draft special, served only at the bar, so we all ate there. It was a 1/2 lb burger with the usual fixin's but no fries or chips and a pint of draft. She then had another pint and some seafood potato skins. I was suprised she ordered the skins, her eyes were definetely bigger then her stomach. She took 90% of them home.

Dave had the pork ribs and said they were quite good, fall of the bone and not drowned in sauce. Since I didn't get to try any I can't attest as to how good.

Rich, had the AYCE with me.

Since we were sitting at the bar I made the mistake of spotting my favorite tequila, which a lot of places don't carry. At least not in WVa It is Patron Silver, man is that smooth. I broke my resolve and ordered a shot for 3 of us, one guy won't drink tequila. I'm going to have to find out why... Must be a story there somewhere. Everyone loved it. I winced real well when I got the tab though, 7.15 per shot x3. Ouch. I knew it would be steep, since a bottle, 750ml, goes for about 40 bucks.

They, Buddy's, advertise a Sunday Brunch for 9.95 that several people there and from work really bragged on. Evidently it has an outstanding omellete bar and some of the best French (freedom?) toast around. Sounded really amazing. Several people remarked how good it is. I'm going to try and find away to try it out myself. Although it is a 125 mile trip, one way.

After dinner and after a 2nd shot that Jackie bought for us we walked up the street and got an ice cream, it was Edy's brand and boy was I dissapointed. Actually wound up throwing most of it away. For one, it wasn't Grater's amd for 2 it just wasn't very good.

And that concluded my Tuesday. A walk back to the room, a littler TV and nighty night.

Back to Einstein's for another bagel. This time I ordered 2, the first was the same as Tuesday, the everything bagel with lots of cream cheese. The 2nd I added scrambled egg, sliced ham and cheese to it. Again, execellent bagel.

Does anyone know if Einstein's bagels are a chain? If so, anymore in the DC, especially the Virginia side of metro DC?

Lunch Wednesday was my first experience with Popeye's fried chicken. Dave wanted to go and since I had never tried them before I went with. It was decent, not terribly greasy but not a whole lot to comment on. If given a choice I'll take the Colonel over the swabbie.

When I got out of work I had some shopping to do. Started off with gas for the trip home, then a trip to the taco place for 2 orders of tacos to go. I got 6 assorted tacos for my oldest and 3 for Connie, the Mexican wife of Domenick the Itialian owner of my local Itialian joint. I had mentioned to Connie back in June about finding this style of taco place and she wanted to know why I didn't bring her any. So this time I did. A bit more on this later in the story.

Went to Giant suopermarket and got 9 gallons, yes 9 whole gallons of fresh milk. Peggy swears that Giant milk taste better then other brands. So when near a Giant, closest one to us is 30 miles, we (I) pick up several gallons. My house averages 6 gallons a week. So 9 will last about 11 days. We have an extra frig in the garage just for milk and Costco buys.

I also picked up 12 Anaheim chilies. These got roasted on the charcoal grill Friday afternoon and made into chilies rellenos for dinner A very tasty treat, don't always find good Anaheim's around here. I did the roasting and the oldest daughter did the cooking. We even took some over to the daughter that is recovering from surgery on Thursday.

from Giant I also bought my favorite sushi, Inari and Calif. rolls, w/o the cucumber. I like cukes, but they tear me up. So I pass when I see them.

After Giant I went to what I will call a bodega, since I have never seen what New Yorkers refer to as bodega's I'm kinda guessing here. What it is is a small store that says it carries, in spanish, Central American and Mexican food and brands. A specialty store. I don't buy a lot of this type of stuff. But here and a few other places I know about carry fresh, good quality tortillias. Both corn and flour.

One of my biggest complaints about leaving Fresno has been the dearth of good mexican food and fresh tortillias. We have found 2 decent mexican restraunts in our area, one about a half mile away and the other in Winchester, Va. about 15 miles away. We prefer the Winchester place but not worth a special drive, usually.

The real problem has been with tortillias though. In Fresno it had gotten so that even several of the local chain supermarkets had put small tortillia plants inside the store. Von's comes to mind. You also had your choice of several mom&pop tortillia stores making and selling fresh ones as well as 2 or 3 large brands that are made in the Fresno area and delivering daily to the stores. All my life, 41 years in Fresno, it wasn't unusual to walk into the local grocery store and buy freshly made corn tortillias that were still warm from that early morning production.

So it was a big culture shock to us to be getting these inferior things made in Pa. With a 6 month shelf life. Now most of the local stores carry ones made in NC., with a 6 month shelf live. At least NC has a decent mexican population. And these do seem to taste better. But when I can I pick-up others in the DC area.

This time I bought the brand that my taco shop uses, LaEnsenada.

So I head home, the milk packed away in the Cincy ice chest in the bed of the truck with a big bag of ice. The tacos and the tortillias in the newish electric cooler in the truck cab with me. 2.5 hours later I've made the 98 miles from PG county to King's New York pizza and itialian restaraunt in Inwood. God, how I hate rush hour traffic in a big city

Here I deliver the 3 tacos to Connie, the mexican wife of Domenic the itialian owner. King's is owned and ran by 3 brothers and 1 brother -in-law and their immediate family. Domenic now runs the store in Shepherdstown while Andre runs mine. Connie runs the regester and takes phone orders. Several of the guys cooking/working behind the counter are relatives of Connie's and don't speak much itialian. Domenic and Andre speak pretty good spanish, as well as their native Napoli Itilian and some German. Hey, I don't care what they speak, as long as the food is good And it is.

Connie insisted on buying me dinner, so I ordered fettucine alfredo with brocolli. One of my favorites there. I got that, but Andre had added shrimp to it. He knows how much I love seafood, especially shrimp. Boy was that good. It was a huge bowl, came with soup and salad and plenty of fresh bread. Usually you get your choice of soup or salad. Boy was I treated right for 7 bucks worth of tacos.

And so that ends my trip. I don't have anything more planned until probably October when I go back to DC. Ohh Well...